Art of the Lake is a new, local publication that seeks to highlight local writers and artists in the Fond du Lac, WI area. Submissions are open to local writers, as well as attendees of THELMA’s open mic and writer’s workshop events.

THELMA Essay Contest Submission Call:

On Jazz: Falling in Love with a Localized Art

By Paula Sergi

My father was a jazz fan who collected LPs in the 1940s and 50s and was known to stay up late listening to his newest acquisitions. This made for difficult mornings because his day job was in banking.

My mother relayed these details to me, as my father died when I was three. His records were packed away on the top shelf of a closet until the house was sold forty years later.

Flash forward to the present when my skills include an uncanny ability to name a jazz standard after hearing the first few chords. I still use this skill to show off to my husband, a music lover of all genres.

I am not educated in music, play no instrument, and never took a jazz studies class. This leads me to believe my skills were picked up in utero.

A defining moment in my jazz fandom remains clear. My high school band director presented an all-school assembly to introduce the concept of jazz. I was an avid consumer, on the edge of my seat.

Imagine hearing it for the first time, the idea of improvisation, trading fours, how to applaud after solos. I thought he made the whole thing up and could barely make eye contact when I saw him in the hallways. Imagine – a genius, right here in my hometown.

After high school I moved to Madison to attend the University of Wisconsin where I majored in nursing. I made friends with another student who was quiet and not my type, but he did suggest we hear a jazz trio perform at Top of the Park, a fancy hotel on the Capitol Square. The female singer was amazing. That night I heard “What a Difference a Day Makes.” My life was forever changed.

I spent several years on the west coast, landing in Portland, Oregon, in the late seventies, where a lively jazz scene existed. A single gal, alone in the city, my mission was to get out of the house. I did not own a TV, choosing instead to explore Portland. Attending venues alone allowed me to meet other jazz enthusiasts and, of course, musicians.

Did I regularly fall in love with them? It was not my fault; I took no responsibility for a routinely shattered heart. Listen, fall, cry, rinse, repeat.

Musicians may not understand, but their magic transforms people like a drug. We who are not musicians want to be them or be near them.

I have been back in my hometown for many years and fell in love again, this time with an entire band. I became a fan of the Lighthouse Big Band in 2007. I am friends with one of the founding members, Dick Wehner, who facilitated a mentoring opportunity for my son when he was in the Fond du Lac High School jazz band. My husband and I came to hear our son perform with

Lighthouse and have followed the group ever since, through their nomadic journey playing numerous locations.

They are now the resident ensemble at Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts, where they perform twice monthly on Tuesdays. Members hail from all over the Fox Valley, including a steady flow of musicians who want to sit in.

Lighthouse presents traditional big bands and dance bands, including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Latin Jazz, contemporary, and big-band versions of rock and pop.

Part of the charm is recognizing the members. Nicole Kowalski recently performed a solo that brought the audience to its feet. She was playing a 1958 Selmer Mark VI alto sax, borrowed from another band member, Gerry Scudella. The instrument has a deep, mellow tone that sang Quincy Jones’s “The Midnight Sun Never Sets.”

I first heard trumpeter Kurt Shipe when he performed in high school with my son. Kurt is ubiquitous in the Fox Valley jazz scene and known to be a generous musician.

A quick look at my yearbook confirms director Brad Curran was a senior during my junior year and already performing in every venue available to a high school student.

Area ballroom dancers have also taken notice, and audience members will be entertained by their dance floor skills when the band performs at THELMA. My favorite events may be when singers perform with the band. So, after years in bigger cities and despite best efforts to evade musicians, jazz remains my much-loved art of choice.

THELMA Essay Contest Submission Guidelines

What does art in your home community mean to you, whether it be visual, literary, musical, theatrical, or otherwise? Draft your most cogent thoughts on what the arts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, or the broader Midwest mean to you in an essay that is 750 words or less. Submissions open Monday, April 15, 2024 – conveniently right before the 2024 Fond du Lac Jazz Festival on Saturday, April 20 at THELMA – and close Monday, July 1, 2024. The top three essay contest submissions will receive free THELMA memberships for a year and be published in THELMA’s new Art of the Lake literary journal, a biannual local publication that seeks to highlight local artists and writers in the Fond du Lac area. The top three essay contest submissions will also receive a contributor’s copy of Art of the Lake when published. There is no entry fee to submit to the essay contest. Please send one essay submission of 750 words or less, size 12, single-spaced Times New Roman font, to artofthelakesubmissions@gmail.com. Please enter “THELMA Essay Contest Submission” in the subject line. In the email's body, please include a mailing address and the name you wish to use as your byline, should your work be published. Please submit your work via attachment (PDF or DOC/DOCX preferred). Do not put your name or identifying information in your submission file or file name, to ensure anonymous submission selection.

No previously published work.

Please make only one essay contest submission.

We accept simultaneous submissions; we just ask that you notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Rights revert to contributors immediately after publication. If essays are reprinted later (in a collection or anthology), we appreciate an acknowledgements credit.